The present invention relates to a pressure-contact connector in which a wire is put onto a pressure-contact blade with pressure so as to make its core contact with the pressure-contact blade electrically, and particularly relates to an improvement of the respective structures of a cover member, a housing, and a pressure-contact terminal for the sake of improving the property for holding a wire in a pressure-contact portion.
In a pressure-contact connector in which a coated wire is put onto a pressure-contact blade with pressure so that its coating is cut and its core is electrically connected to the pressure-contact blade by pressure-contact, there is indeed an advantage in mass productivity, but there is a disadvantage that a pressure-contact portion is low in property for holding a wire against vibrations, and so on.
A pressure-contact connector in which such a disadvantage is solved and in which a wire contact means is provided in a pressure-contact portion will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7 by way of example. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional pressure-contact connector; FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a terminal reception chamber after assembling; and FIG. 7 is a front view showing the state where a wire is pressure-contacted.
A housing 3 in which a plurality of opening portions of terminal reception chambers 1 are opened in the upper and lower surfaces is provided so that the housing 3 is held from above and below by a pair of covers 5a and 5b, respectively. A plurality of wire contact portions 7 are provided on the inner walls of the covers 5a and 5b correspondingly to the terminal reception chambers 1 so as to project from the inner walls. When the covers 5a and 5b are fitted to the housing 3, each of the wire contact portions 7 is disposed between pressure-contact blades 9a and 9b of a pressure-contact terminal 9 received in the terminal reception chamber 1 as shown in FIG. 6. Accordingly, the contact portion contacts with a wire 15 in which a coating 11 (see FIG. 7) thereof is cut by the pressure-contact blades 9a and 9b so that the pressure-contact blades 9a and 9b contact with a core 13 of the wire 15 which has become able to be electrically contacted.
Consequently, the wire 15 is restrained from moving up and down (in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 7) by vibrations, and so on, so that the property for holding the wire 15 is improved to thereby improve the reliability in electrical contacting in the pressure-contact portion.
In such a conventional pressure-contact connector, however, the wire contact portions 7 are provided in the pair of upper and lower covers 5a and 5b respectively, and when the covers 5a and 5b are attached to each other, the wire contact portions are disposed between the pressure-contact blades 9a and 9b of the pressure-contact terminals 9 received in the terminal reception chambers 1. Accordingly, two sets of cover members are required as the covers 5a and 5b. Thus, since the number of parts are increased, disadvantageously, the cost of manufacture increases, and the management of the parts becomes troublesome.
In addition, wires 15 led out from a number of upper and lower terminal reception chambers 1 must be arranged in a wire insertion portion 17 (see FIG. 5) so as not to be trapped by the covers 5a and 5b when the covers are fitted, because the covers are constituted by two parts. Accordingly, the performance of assembling is remarkably poor.